The TowerCares Foundation is excited to host the 2026 Tower Classic Golf Tournament! We are back at the beautiful Renditions Golf Course in Davidsonville, Maryland, and are looking forward to a fun day of golf on a scenic 18-hole course. Enjoy good food and camaraderie, raffles, prizes, contests and more—all for a great cause: to benefit the TowerCares Foundation and the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.
We do it for the children. Children like Brayden.
Melissa and Adam weren’t expecting any problems with the birth of their third child, but a routine pregnancy checkup at 20 weeks turned their world upside down. An ultrasound showed their baby had spina bifida, a neural tube defect that can form during fetal development, resulting in an exposed spinal cord and nerves. They went straight to Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore for treatment.
There, doctors discovered that the defect formed below the rib cage and ran down the baby’s spine. The real danger was in the brain, where spinal fluid was leaking and filling the ventricles. Each week, doctors measured the fluid, waiting to induce delivery in the hope of giving the baby as much time to develop as possible.
Finally, at 37 weeks, it was time. While they knew the battle was just beginning, Adam and Melissa felt a weight lifted when they heard Brayden Charles’ first cries as their “brave warrior” entered the world.
Immediately after birth, Brayden endured two surgeries—one to close the opening in his back and another to have a shunt implanted. He was on oxygen in the neonatal intensive care unit for almost a week when doctors realized a third surgery was needed. The skin on his lower back was too thin and at risk of rupturing, so it needed to be repaired. The procedure was a success and once he was breathing on his own, Brayden was finally able to go home and meet his big brothers.
He spent most of his first year in and out of the Children’s Center for follow-up. Today, Brayden uses a wheelchair to get around, but his father says it hardly holds him back from being an excitable little boy. His parents realize what a miracle their son is, and what an ordeal he survived during his first few days of life. They hope that his life will only get easier going forward.
“Johns Hopkins Children’s Center has given us that hope,” says Melissa. “When I know we’re going there, I feel relief. I know they’re going to give Brayden what he needs.”
